FEBRUARY 16, 2012. The day Ally McCoist coined Rangers’ new club motto.

He didn’t know it at the time. But from the driver’s seat of his car outside Murray Park he uttered five words that will live with him until the day he dies.

McCoist’s defiant message of “We Don’t Do Walking Away” to the club’s detractors encapsulated the feeling among the battle-hardened Rangers support.

It was what they wanted, what they needed, to hear from the guy whose job it was to lead them out of the abyss.

And as McCoist reflects on the most turbulent year of his professional career he finds it incredible the phrase is now synonymous with Gers’ revival.

Fans have it on banners, T-shirts and strips. For them it epitomised McCoist and his love for the club.

His legendary status as Rangers’ greatest ever goalscorer shifted up a notch with one line out the window of his club Audi.

McCoist is adamant the phrase wasn’t meant to be profound. Instead, he insists it simply came from the heart at a time when Rangers had been plunged into administration.

As the Ibrox gaffer looked ahead to what he hopes will be a successful 2013 he couldn’t help looking back to a 12 months he’ll never forget.

And he promised Rangers supporters he meant what he said – he never contemplated for a second walking out on the club during its hour of need.

McCoist said: “No, never. Not once did I think about walking away because I wanted to see it through.

“I just wanted the club to survive and the people within it to keep their jobs. That was all I was hoping for and that’s how serious it was.

“We know the club nearly died and with that would have been people’s livelihoods. So there was never a time where I thought about quitting.

“We all just wanted to do our bit. I could have gone back to the TV career. I loved the TV work and it was certainly easier.

“But I love what I do now. I love the club and the people within it. I wanted us all to get through it.

“I have probably made a rod for my own back with that statement, ‘We Don’t Do Walking Away’. There are certainly one or two in here who have accused me of having a big mouth.

Ally utters the words that became a mantra for the Ibrox support

“But it was a throwaway line. It was never said with any degree of poignancy, I wasn’t trying to be profound. I was just something I said out of a car window and I didn’t think it would get the kind of reaction it has had.

“The supporters needed somebody, they didn’t have anybody at that stage. They didn’t have a chairman, a chief executive or even a board.

“All they had was a team and myself. So they were looking for something to cling on to. It certainly wasn’t pre-meditated.

“But a lot of them have jumped on it, which is great.”

McCoist knows there are more important things than football. He has been though enough in his personal life to maintain perspective even through one of the darkest periods in Rangers' history.

That’s why he refuses to label 2012 the worst year of his life and instead sees it more of a rollercoaster ride of emotions.

He was helpless as Gers were liquidated, which saw him lose the majority of his players and the newco club forced to start life in Division Three.

Now McCoist is charged with the task of guiding them back to the top of Scottish football.

He said: “I wouldn’t have 2012 down as the best year of my life – but I wouldn’t say it’s the worst either.

“There are worse things that can happen. It has been the most topsy-turvy year of my life without a doubt.

“What has happened to the club and the team has been, at best, bizarre and challenging. We have come through it to a certain degree, which is great. But there is still miles to go.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to sit down and look at the past year. I will do, though, I will probably look it month by month and be amazed.

“You have to balance things. It has been a horrendous time in terms of work, as poor a year as I can remember, but we’ve come through it.

“That was the most important thing and we’ve done it with the help of so many people.

“Looking back with hindsight, we always had a feeling all was not well at the club. Inside here we knew everything wasn’t ticking along nicely.

“We didn’t know precisely what the problems were but we knew trouble was brewing.”

McCoist is well aware Rangers have suffered a handful of damaging defeats during his time as manager, with the likes of Maribor, Falkirk and Stirling Albion still fresh in his memory.

But he’s also realistic to know that amid the carnage which engulfed the club, if there was ever a year when results were secondary it was the one which has just ended.

And McCoist is now relishing the challenge of showing his qualities as a gaffer with the club on a sound financial footing.

He said: “I don’t know if I’ll look back on 2012 in years to come and think it was the one that made me as a manager. You just do things you feel are right.

“You’re going to make mistakes but at the same time it was such an important situation for the club in that every decision was probably being analysed and looked at meticulously.

“What was more important was the welfare and running of the club. It’s been strange because we haven’t really been judged on what you usually get judged on – results.

“It’s probably the one year I can remember where results didn’t matter. They were completely secondary to the survival of the club.

“So I’m looking forward to 2013 and being judged on results. Because that’s what all managers should be judged on.”